Business news from Ukraine

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has provided government guarantees for loans in the amount of UAH 1.055 billion taken by state-owned enterprises Lvivvuhillia, Pervomaiskvuhillia, Selidovvuhillia, Toretskvuhillia and Surhai Mine to implement investment projects.
The resolution was approved at a government meeting on Wednesday.
According to the documents, Pervomaiskvuhillia attracts UAH 276.21 million to prepare and launch a new longwall, Selidovvuhillia – UAH 278.12 million for refitting of 11th longwall of one of its coalmines.
Surhai Mine will take a loan of UAH 138.84 million for own re-equipment and Toretskvuhillia will take UAH 21.15 million for refitting of one longwall of one of its coalmines.
Lvivvuhillia will attract UAH 112.2 million for re-equipment of Vidrodzhennia Coalmine and UAH 228.11 million for Stepova coalmine.
The government guarantee covers 80% of liabilities, including the principal of the loan and credit rates. The fee for the government guarantee is 0.001% per annum of the unpaid sum of the loan.

Kyiv, Kharkiv and Rivne regions are leaders in the rating of Ukrainian regions, according to the social and economic development monitoring for 2017 drawn up by the Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry of Ukraine.
According to the study, Kyiv city (Mayor Vitali Klitschko) and Kharkiv region (Head of Regional Administration Yulia Svitlychna) retain their positions for the second year in a row.
Kyiv city was first in most figures. In Kharkiv region, the smallest unemployment rate in Ukraine – 6.1%, and the highest share of power generated from alternative sources, as well as the level of the introduction of energy saving technologies – 30.4% and 72% respectively.
Rivne region is third (Head of Regional Administration Oleksiy Muliarenko). The region climbed by three positions compared with 2016. Dnipropetrovsk region is fourth (Valentyn Reznichenko). The region climbed six positions up.
Chernivtsi region is fifth (Oleksandr Fyschuk).
Outsiders of the rating are Luhansk, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Odesa regions.
The study is conducted under government resolution No. 856 dated October 21, 2015 on the approval of the rules of conducting monitoring and assessing results.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has opened a new Beskydsky railway tunnel.
“I am confident that this is a symbol of effective cooperation of Ukraine with the European Union, it is a symbol of increasing revenues to the national budget, it is a symbol of creating new high-paying jobs in Ukraine both in the economy and on the railroad,” Poroshenko said at the ceremony of opening the tunnel in Zakarpattia region.
According to him, this tunnel is part of the international transport 1,500-kilometer corridor Trieste-Ljubljana-Budapest-Bratislava-Uzhgorod-Lviv.
The head of state noted that the tunnel “tightly linked” Lviv region and Zakarpattia region.
The president noted that the construction of the new tunnel was started in 2014 (the old one was built in 1886).
According to him, 60% of the export flow, which is transported by rail, goes through the Beskydsky tunnel.
Poroshenko said that the old tunnel allowed 40-45 pairs of trains a day, while the new tunnel more than 100 at a speed of 60 km/h, which is 20 km/h more than the speed in the old tunnel.

The total budget of the sowing campaign in Ukraine in 2018 would be UAH 116 billion, and as of May 18, 2018 some UAH 87 billion was spent, First Deputy Agricultural Policy and Food Minister Maksym Martyniuk has said.
“We are closing the finish of the sowing campaign. As of May 22, 6.859 million ha or 93% of the target was sowed. This figure is almost identical to the last year figure. The month delay in the start of field works was fully removed,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Martyniuk said that there are no reasons to expect that the harvest would considerably decrease compared with the previous year.
“Winter crops give no rise to unfavorable criticism. In the hibernation period only 0.1% of total crops were killed. This is a record. The main indicators in the formula of the future harvest of positive, although weather in the first half of June could influence the harvest. We do not see threats for grain crops after the sowing campaign,” he said.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) from the World Bank group has signed loan agreements on the provision of financing to the largest sugar producer in Ukraine Astarta for the amount of $30 million and the large pork producer Nyva Pereyaslavschyny for $12.5 million.
“Agribusiness is a priority for IFC globally, and Ukraine is very important to our strategy in the sector,’ Stephanie von Friedeburg, IFC’s chief operating officer, said during a signing ceremony in Kyiv.
According to the press release, IFC’s financing will support a two-year investment program aimed at improving the company’s resource efficiency and competitiveness by modernizing its sugar plants. This would help reduce the use of gas, electricity, and water. The program also aims to help Astarta—which grows and trades grain and oilseed—purchase modern and efficient farm machinery and construct of new storage facilities.
IFC is providing long-term debt financing to support Nyva’s investment program, which includes constructing a new meat-processing facility that will become one of the country’s first to comply with European Union standards for food safety and animal welfare. The company will also build a new pig farm and a rendering plant capable of recycling up to 50 tonnes of waste every day, helping to reduce its environmental footprint.
This is IFC’s second investment in Nyva.
Pork production in Ukraine remains inefficient and highly fragmented, with many smaller producers lacking sufficient quality controls, IFC said.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a list of 477 investment programs and regional development projects for the total amount of over UAH 4 billion, which will be financed by the State Regional Development Fund in 2018.
“We have approved the first list of investment programs and regional development projects that will be financed from the State Regional Development Fund in 2018. Now 477 projects for a total of more than UAH 4 billion are approved,” the press service of the Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry of Ukraine reported with reference to the decision of the government on Wednesday.
Some 80 educational facilities (regular schools and kindergartens) for the amount of UAH 1.3 billion will be built in the regions at the expense of the State Regional Development Fund, 95 facilities of public health and social protection – UAH 804 million, 78 sports facilities – UAH 740 million, 36 water supply and sewage facilities – UAH 200 million, 25 facilities of road and transport infrastructure – UAH 334 million, and 26 cultural facilities – UAH 397 million.
The draft resolution on financing at the expense of the State Regional Development Fund includes projects that have been submitted to the Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Zaporizhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv regional administrations and Kyiv City Administration.

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